It was almost as if Roy Halladay was two people—two of the best people you could ever meet. On the mound, Halladay was, in the words of Ruben Amaro Jr., his former general manager with the Philadelphia Phillies, “the most ferocious competitor you can ever imagine.” Off the mound, Amaro said, Halladay was, “the kindest, most unassuming, gentle person.” Or in the words of former Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, “For as great of a baseball player as he was, he was an even better human being.”

Halladay, who died at 40 on Tuesday when his plane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, was a Hall of Fame-caliber pitcher, unparalleled worker, and model teammate. Those who knew him best also described him as a devoted husband to his wife, Brandy, and father to his sons, Ryan and Braden. In short, he was everything you would want a person and a baseball player to be.